Bacileff told Clarin that drug traffickers operated unharassed by law enforcement in wooded areas in the province’s northeastern region, which, he said, is a major transit point for drug flights.

The vice governor also accused factions of the local police of involvement in drug trafficking and of forming criminal gangs, adding that he had intelligence proving that police were behind a recent bank heist in which over a quarter of a million dollars was stolen.

Bacileff accused the governor of the province, Jorge Capitanich, of doing nothing to tackle drug trafficking and of losing control of Chaco, which he said was in a state of “anarchy.”

InSight Crime Analysis

Notably, the petition to investigate Bacileff’s claims was filed by members of political opposition party the Radical Civic Union party (UCR). Given that the issue of drug trafficking has become increasingly politicized in Argentina, it is likely that the UCR legislators chose to lobby the federal courts partly for political reasons. However, this does not discredit the claims made by Bacileff, who is a member of the Peronist party that rules the province and the country.

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